Education and Skills Bill

I apologise to the noble Baroness, Lady Morris of Bolton, for being absent from the Chamber when she moved this important group of amendments. I heard only the last part of her introduction and I look forward to reading the rest tomorrow. I agree with my noble friend Lord Dearing that the principle of a firm approach to ensure that young people are in constructive activity as far as possible, to keep them out of trouble and to enable them to achieve their potential is right; but there must be the flexibility that we are discussing. The noble Baroness, Lady Perry, and others spoke on the amendment concerned with teenage mothers having access to parenting programmes. It is so important not to inhibit these young women in their mothering. They may lack confidence when someone says, ““We know what’s best for you. We’ll look after your children through one means or another, perhaps through childcare, while you go and study””. As far as possible, we should be encouraging them to engage with their children and to enjoy them. The child will then thrive and both mother and child will benefit from the positive relationship that they have with each other. That was a particularly important amendment to bring forward. Perhaps I am jumping the gun a little, but can the Minister comment on one scenario I can envisage in, for instance, a children’s home? If a 16 or 17 year-old is saying, ““I don’t want to do a course. I don’t want to spend two days a week in training””, it might strengthen the hand of residential childcare workers if they can say, ““You’ll be acting against the law if you don’t go to college just for two days a week””. On the other hand, it may be that in the judgment of the residential childcare worker that young person is too depressed to benefit from such training, that they will seek to evade it in any way, or just simply that it is not right for them. Therefore, how much discretion will people such as residential childcare workers, social workers and perhaps foster carers be given? How much input will they have in the process of deciding whether a child is criminalised? I can see some benefit in strengthening a concerned carer’s hand in encouraging a young person to do what is good for them. On the other hand, carers also need to be able to decide whether the provisions should not apply to a particular child. I hope that that is clear, and look forward to the reply.